Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) Input/Output (I/O) referral techniques may be utilized to facilitate communication between an initiator system and a block storage cluster. For example, the initiator system (e.g., a data requester) may transmit a data request command to a first storage system of the block storage cluster. If the data requested is stored in the first storage system, the data may be retrieved and transferred to the initiator system. If a portion of the data requested is not stored by the first storage system, but is stored by a second storage system of the block storage cluster, scale-out techniques such as data forwarding may be utilized for accessing data stored by the second storage system. However, data forwarding penalties may be associated with such forwarding techniques.
Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a storage system which addresses the above-referenced problems of currently available storage system solutions.